Confused by my disc (brake) wheels

daniel_b

Evening all,

I bought a pair of wheels off the classifieds on here, and they have the standard 6 bolt fitment, as per on my Alloy synapse, and my gf's Fuji:


I took delivery of my carbon synapse on Friday, but the setup looks like this on Mavic Aksium One Disc wheels:



Never seen it before but looks to me like the rotor is locked in somehow with a ring that does not look too dissimilar to one that would lock a cassette in place.

That is standard QR though no, it's not a through axle is it........?

So am I right in thinking I cannot use those rotors with my second hand wheels, but that the wheels with compatible rotors will still work on the carbon synapse?

Hoping I do not need to sell the wheels on again, can't really justify them on my winter bike.

apreading

google: Centre Lock

http://bike-advisor.com/bicycle-guides/ ... bolts.html

timothyw

Those wheels use the 'center lock' shimano standard instead of the more generic '6 bolt' standard.

You can get a cheap adapter to use 6 bolt rotors on centrelock wheels, but not the other direction.

With that said, rotors shouldn't really be that expensive (although some of the shimano ice-tech ones most definitely are...)

In theory, the tool to remove them is a standard cassette tool, although you may find yours isn't compatible.

apreading

So you wont be able to use the existing rotors on your new wheels. You can however get an adapter to use 6 bolt rotors on centre-lock wheels. So you will need to buy new rotors for those wheels. I had to do the same to switch wheels on my Whyte because they changed to centre-lock this year for the OEM wheels/rotors.

daniel_b

Nice one, thankyou gents - that explains it then.

TBH, I was planning to remove these straight away, and sell them complete with tyres, and now it looks like complete with rotors as well.

The second hand wheels I bought came with rotors, so if they are ok, I will use those, but I will likely look for some new ones, as it's a new bike.

So there is nothing stopping me using the wheels in this frame, the whole centrelock or QR differential is purely down to the hub design - I thought it was more involved that that, so good to know.

Good to know I do not need to sell them on, guessing there is no real disadvantage to QR as opposed to centrelock, otherwise one would become the standard.

Any rotor recommendations?

I need 140 front and rear, probably up to around £25 a pop - it's a new bike, don't feel I should cheapskate on this.

EDIT: Darn, looks like the Icetech ones only start at 160 (In 6 bolt formation) :-(
SRAM, Hope?

Slightly bizarre, as the alloy synapse with Sram, has 160 front, and 140 rear.

Looks like 140 is not really a popular option for mountain bikes, hence the lack of choice.

apreading

Centrelock or 6 bolt is about the mounting of the disc rotor. Has nothing to do with the axle type.

Axle types are QR, 12mm, 15mm etc and have nothing to do with rotor mounting system.

you can get any combination of rotor mount and axle type.

But yes, there is little to choose between 6 bolt or centrelock - 6 bolt is more universal and mainly shimano use centrelock as its their system I think. I think centrelock is in theory quicker and (arguably) easier to mount or remove the rotor but how often you do that means it really doesnt matter. I wish we didnt have two standards but we do...

I can recommend the Shimano ice-tec rotors if you are buying new - very nice and Merlin seem to have them cheap often.

daniel_b

Thanks ap, seeing little out there for 6 bolt shimano 140 -Merlin have a cached link on google for a pair, but long gone.

Looking like Avid\SRAM, or Hope at the mo:
https://www.merlincycles.com/avid-rotor-centerline-73486.html

https://www.merlincycles.com/hope-standard-fixed-rotors-2016-91006.html


The SRAM ones I can get for £21.50 each.

apreading

Damn - didnt realise you had 140mm, not so much choice around there...

daniel_b

apreading wrote:

Damn - didnt realise you had 140mm, not so much choice around there...

@rse :?

gabriel959

Hi Daniel,

My bike had a similar thing, it came with centerlock wheels but I had some revo's which are 6-bolt, so I had to buy some rotors, bought the best ones I could buy which are icetech, which are the RT86, and paid around £20 for each after vouchers/giftcard/cashback, etc from Evans. They are 160mm though, pretty sure you can fit 160mm too, as the brakes are the same as mine, and if you are going to be doing any descending bigger is better The other issue I had is that when I swapped the wheels the new rotors rubbed against the pads, as the tolerances are small. You will have to adjust these and it is a bit of a faff, I watched a few videos in youtube and that helped! Let me know if you need a hand if you have this problem.

Hope this helps!

apreading

I am sure you could use 160mm but there are a couple of things you need to be aware of. The adapters that fit the brake caliper to the frame would need to replaced with 160mm adapters to position the caliper in the right place. It looks like that should be an easy job. But also you should be aware that frames/forks usually come with a maximum recommended rotor size because they might not take the torque of a really big rotor. I am sure you could probably go to 160mm even if they dont say you can, but you need to check that it doesnt invalidate your warranty.

bendertherobot

Hope do 140's in their floating range.

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/hope-6-bolt-flo ... isc-rotor/

kayakerchris

I got new centre lock ice tech rotors for a set of new wheels about 4 months ago. I think I got them off eBay from a german bike shop. arrived within a couple of days.

daniel_b

bendertherobot wrote:

Hope do 140's in their floating range.

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/hope-6-bolt-flo ... isc-rotor/

Quite tasty price wise though, nearly £30 more for a pair.
I think the SRAM ones are quite well rated.